Battlestar Ryker
by Kreido Tai
Summary: Set during the Cylon War, before the events of Battlestar Galactica
1. Chapter 1

_**The Battlestar Ryker**_

"**There are those who believe that life here began out there, far across the universe, with tribes of humans who may have been the forefathers of the Egyptians, or the Toltecs, or the Mayans, that they may have been the architects of the Great Pyramids, or the lost civilization of Lemuria or Atlantis. Some believe that there may yet be brothers of man who even now fight to survive somewhere beyond the heavens" - Narrator, Battlestar Galactica: Saga of a Star World**

**The Cylon War... The war of the Cylons and the Colonies of Man. The Cylons versus the Colonies, Cylon raiders versus the Colonial Vipers and the dreaded Cylon Basestars versus the powerful Colonial Battlestars. It is known that the Colonies built the Cylons as slaves. The Cylons eventually turned on their former master, and then the war began. **

**Amidst the Battlestars, there stood one, a large, gray cruiser, the largest Battlestar of them all. Able to carry 3 times more Vipers than any other Battlestar, the Battlestar also had far more powerful turbo laser mounted upon its hull, enough to repel almost any attack put against it. This Battlestar was known as Ryker, commanded by the 29 year old Tal "Striker" Ferral, one of the youngest Commanders to command a Battlestar.**

"**Close blast shields now!" shouted the young commander as a Cylon Raider came screaming towards the Ryker, "I thought Green Squadron was supposed to be deployed!" screaming this to no one in particular.**

**But moments before. "Commander, sir! We have more Raiders heading towards us, do you want me to issue an alert to the?" One of the bridge crew put in.**

"**By the Lords of Kobol, man! This is fracking war! Not practice! Alert the fleet! Get Green Squadron out now!" Order the Commander. So the crewman did. The Ryker went to battle ready with red sirens flashing on over the ship and the railguns deploying outwards to face the Cylon threat. **

**While in the crew quarter's a large game of Pyramid was being played… "Watch and weep boys, a full pyramid" boasted Captain Rek Avery, the CAG of the Ryker, from Green Squadron who immediately collects his winnings with a smile. **

"**Hey! Cheater!" cried out another member, a rival from Blue Squadron, Damon Hunt, from the Battlestar Galactica.**

"**I don't cheat, you're just a shit player" defended Rek Avery. **

**With that, Damon Hunt had an excuse and leapt up with intent to harm, disturbing the table, and knocking cards and credits over the floor. "You Fracker! You're gonna pay! You cheated!" Damon Hunt lurched towards Rek Avery, but Rek Avery dodged the attack and drew his pistol.**

"**Attempting to attack an officer is an offense. You are under arrest." Rek Avery said but didn't have time to carry through the arrest as suddenly the sirens sounded and a message was sent - "All units to your station! This is an Alert! All units to your stations! This is an alert!" - and then the next few minutes was chaos as people were rushing to get their flight helmets, and during this chaotic moment, escaped to his Viper in the launch bay. **

"**Close blast shields now!" screamed Commander Ferral at the crewmember behind the controls. "I thought Green Squadron was supposed to be deployed! Where the fracking hell are----" As he began to scream this, the railguns roared into life, and for the first few seconds, as they powered, the noise drowned out the remaining words. "Well, at least the railguns are on time" Exclaimed Commander Ferral**

"**Sir! Green Squadron has launched! They will commence attack!"**

"**Put the pilots on speakers" said Commander Ferral.**

"**Yes Sir!" was the reply given by Ensign Stuarts, the communications guy.**

"**Green Squadron! You are to attack the Cylon Raiders" Commander Ferral**

"**Yes Sir!" replied the whole of Green Squadron enthusiastically.**

**Outside the Ryker, a battle began to unfold. The Cylon Raiders, armed with guided nuclear warheads versus the Viper Mk II's and the Mk VII's. Computer versus Human.**

**The Squadron was vastly outnumbered by about 5 to 1.**

"**Hey! Buck! Good day for a fight, huh?" joked on of the Viper pilots**

"**Yeah, sure" came the less enthusiastic response of 'Buck'.**

"**What's the matter kid? Scared?" quipped Viper Pilot #1**

"**Frack! We have company!" remarked about 20 pilots**

**Suddenly, one of the Raiders let off a barrage of warheads into Viper Pilot #1's cockpit, instantly decimating it, then the about 5000 Raiders appeared out of from FTL(Faster Than Light) and let off a barrage of eight nuclear warheads each.**

"**HOLY CRAP!" Screamed a pilot as 10 warheads slammed into his Viper, crushing it and ripping it to shreds in a matter of seconds. A chunk of the viper went hurtling through space to cut 12 Raiders clean, destroying them, and their cargo of warheads. **

**The Viper's were much more agile, especially the sleeker Viper Mk VII's with starting to pour shot after shot into the Raiders. Soon it was about 4 to 1. **

"**Save some for us, gals!" cried out a voice over the intercom**

**Another voice from Green Squadron piped up, "looks like the cocky bastards from Blue Squadron are here"**

**The greetings were cut short when a Cylon Basestar suddenly appeared out of FTL and started firing towards the Ryker. As if to add to the worry of the Basestar and a 4 to 1 outnumber, more Raiders appeared out of FTL, now the Vipers were out number 10 to 1.**

"**Ryker! This is Captain Hunt, please respond! Ryker, this is Captain Hunt, please respond!"**

"**This is the Ryker, we see it, until back up arrives, we're on our own" replied what sounded like Commander Farrel**

"**Yessir!" Replied Captain Hunt. "Okay Guys! Let's show them we're here! And we're here to stay!"**

**The Vipers then started to release all hell upon the Raiders, flaring up there machine guns to rip through the metal material of the Raiders.**

"**Sir? Do you think we'll win this fight?" asked a worried pilot**

"**Yeah! I think we will! --- Hey! Look it the Galactica, and the Atlanta is here! They've arrived!" Shouted Captain Hunt as the Atlanta, Galactica and Leviathan appeared out of FTL. **

**As they arrived, the space around them was distorted into blues and reds and greens. When they finished coming out of FTL, the Galactica began to deploy it's triangular landing bays and unleashed it's load of Vipers, Atlanta and Leviathan followed. The Vipers began to scream (if screams could be heard in space) towards the attacking Raiders, the odds were now much more even. But also, the new Battlestars deployed their railguns as well, and began ripping through the Raiders much more powerfully than the Vipers could. Eventually, the Raiders took the Battlestar Leviathan as their target and unleashed 10's of barrages of nuclear warheads towards it.**

"**Close Blast Shields NOW!" Screamed the Commander as a warhead came hurtling towards the screen and exploded as a Viper took its place in front of the warhead and fired off it's rounds. Unfortunately, it wasn't the Viper's firing that exploded the warhead, the nuke managed to survive the shots and came screaming on it's course and ripped through the Viper tearing through its nose and into the cockpit where the last thing the pilot saw was his legs being shredded then a massive fireball engulfed it.**

"**Sir! Did you see that!" commented a crew member of the Leviathan**

"**Yes… I did…" said the Commander of the Leviathan, "Okay Pilots! Blast these fracking Cylon Raiders to Hell! Make sure they know the true meaning of what is to be a Colonial!" Shouted the Leviathan commander down the intercom.**

**All the Pilots replied with a very enthusiastic "Yessir!"**

**On Caprica, a news station was talking about how amazing the new Battlestar Ryker was and how much Battlestar had advanced since they were introduced. Little did they know, a squadron of 40 Raiders was heading their way, in a new attempt to annihilate the Colonials.**

"… **The Battlestar Ryker is the biggest Battlestar and is more fiercely armed than the Battlestar Atlanta. The awesome Battlestar Ryker can carry more Vipers than any other Battlestar, 3 times more in fact. New hope has been given to us with the new battlestar, which should undoubtedly turn the war to our favour…. By The Lords of Kobol! Cylons! They're attacking! No! Where is the Battlestar Prometheus?" the commentator cried out, but the radio wouldn't transmit anymore, for a nuclear warhead came crashing through the atmosphere and hit the market, torching and evaporating hundreds of civilians who lived around the market, and who were shopping the large market.**

**From the skies 40 Raiders came hurtling towards the planet with nuclear warheads being calculated for the best targets, and to be 100 accurate. But only 12 Raiders managed to fires their warheads, because suddenly, as if the Lords of Kobol had sent them from the heavens 100 Viper Mk II's from the Prometheus came bursting through the clouds above and ripped through 28 Raiders with fire. This small skirmish looked as if it would be won by the Colonials. It was 12 vs 100, great odds for the Colonials.**

**The warheads that did manage to fire began to go off course and flew back towards the Raiders and advancing Vipers while a man in a large building screamed "It's Working! The Defenses Are Working!" and they did, for the warheads crashed into the Raiders, disintegrating them, and some of the Vipers which had gotten a little too close.**


	2. Chapter 2

_**The Battlestar Ryker**_

_**Commanded By Tal "Striker" Ferral**_

"**There are those who believe that life here began out there, far across the universe, with tribes of humans who may have been the forefathers of the Egyptians, or the Toltecs, or the Mayans, that they may have been the architects of the Great Pyramids, or the lost civilization of Lemuria or Atlantis. Some believe that there may yet be brothers of man who even now fight to survive somewhere beyond the heavens" - Narrator, Battlestar Galactica: Saga of a Star World**

**Chapter 2**

**The warheads that did manage to fire began to go off course and flew back towards the Raiders and advancing Vipers while a man in a large building screamed "It's Working! The Defenses Are Working!" and they did, for the warheads crashed into the Raiders, disintegrating them, and some of the Vipers which had gotten a little too close.**

**Up above in the heavens, the Battlestars were pumping their railguns at maximum power in order to attempt to stop the attacking Basestar, which would provide less than a match for the Battlestars. Nuclear Warhead after nuclear warhead came plummeting from the launchers towards the four Battlestars, but each warhead was being exploded long before it reached any of the Battlestars. Around the Battlestars, dog fights were being fought, with the Vipers tearing through the metal material of the Cylon Raiders, and the Cylon Raiders ripping through the Vipers' armor with smaller nuclear warheads than those fired by the Basestar. **

"**Come on! We have to hold them! Or else this planet is doomed!" Commanded Tal from the bridge of the Ryker, by his side was his Colonel, Terry "Heartbreak" Russell, a veteran from the beginning of the war. **

"**Are you alright, sir?" questioned the Colonel, having never seen the Commander like this before.**

**Realizing that people were staring at his small outburst, he blushed and muttered "Quite alright, thank you Colonel" and began staring at the combat screens.**

**Down on the planet, another set of events was happening. In the sky, a small dogfight between a viper and a Cylon raider was occurring, the Cylon being the one to fire its cannons. As the viper began to do its 3.5 second head-to-tail turn, the Cylon shot a hole through its wing, sending the Viper hurtling towards the ground with the Cylon raider flying off to join its group. **

**As the viper crashes towards the lake below, a crowd looks up in despair as one of their beloved Viper Pilots ejects and is hit by gunfire from several Cylon raiders., leaving a shredded corpse floating towards the lake and the crowd in a parachute. **

**A young man dashed out of the crowd towards the damaged viper as it crashed into the lake and began to swim towards the damaged viper. The young man began to check all its systems to see if they were normal. This man was obviously no curious bystander; he was an ex-viper pilot. He is Dominic "Ice" Hayward. Dominic, or Dom, began to climb into the cockpit as it began to sink. The computer chirped into life with "Systems Active. Systems Restored. Welcome Ensign Daniel "Blind-Eye" Wesley" and the engines fired. **

**Dominic leaned over to push a series of numbers on a panel on the HUD and blankly said "Change of Pilot. New Pilot; Dominic, D-O-M-I-N-I-C – Hayward, H-A-Y-W-A-R-D. Call sign; Ice, I-C-E."**

**It could be said that one would be able to hear a pin drop as the internal computer of the viper made the changes when it suddenly replied "Change of Pilot; Accepted"**

**As the Viper began to sink, some bystanders from the crowd who came to watch Dominic swim to the downed Viper threw some ropes to the man in the cockpit. Attaching the ropes to a large vehicle and the other end to the Viper, the vehicle roared into life and began to drag the slowly sinking Viper on shore. Making long scars into the water saturated mud, the Viper came ashore, looking worse than it was, and swiftly Dominic jumped out the cockpit to assess the damage. **

**Looking at the holes in the wing, and the water logged engines, he began a quick estimation of how long it would take him to fix up the Viper to flight status. Estimating at around 4 days, he got some civilians to help pull out the landing gear so the Viper Mk II could be moved much easier and then told the driver to take the Viper to the nearest garage.**

**Back up in the sky, Vipers were trying their best to stop the Cylons from laying Caprica to waste. This was the 6th time in 2 months they had tried to destroy the Colonies leading City, and the Colonial pilots would be damned before the Cylons succeeded.**

"**Got 'im!" Came the usual shout of a Viper pilot as he put a hail of fire into a raider, using the sleek maneuvers taught to them at the Colonial Viper Academy. **

**From the intercom came the familiar sound of Rek Avery's voice saying "Don't get to far from the rest of us, I'd hate to lose a pilot, no matter how bad you are." **

**Then came then warning from Avery's wing mate "Sir! Check 6!" when a Cylon Raider approached behind Damon Hunt and starting to send a hail of fire into the Viper.**

**Doing a quick 3.5 second nose-to-tail turn, Rek's Viper returned fire, receiving a hail of machine gun fire into the cockpit and engines, instantly tearing it apart in a heart-wrenching explosion.**

"**No Fracking Way!" Came the shouts of many pilots as they saw their CAG destroyed, and instantly turned onto the Raider that took out one of the best pilots the Academy had seen and fired upon it, turning it into shredded raider, although this would offer no consolation for the loss of the Rykers CAG.**

**The Battlestar Ryker was taking dangerous fire from the Raiders, while the Basestar tried to concentrate it's fire on the Atlanta, taking out one of it's 8 engines. Tal turned to the man standing a meter behind, when the man give an instant textbook salute, perfected to perfection. **

**Reading off a piece of printed paper, Commander Tal Ferral begins to read "Rhett 'Devilo' Gardner… Wanted for murder and theft of Colonial Military property…. Rhett… Rhett… I remember you… But I cannot place where…"**

"**Sir?" asked the man with a quizzical look on his face.**

"**You should be in the prison, awaiting your death sentence, but I'm not going to. I'm giving you the title of CAG and making you a Captain. I saw you fly that Viper in one of the hardest strafing maneuvers and it seems we have lost our CAG. We need you now, so get into _your_ Viper, and make you family proud, make us proud" and with bone-cracking swiftness, salutes Rhett, putting the new Captain's previous salute to shame.**

**Rhett literally ran to his viper, mostly through relief, and partly because he just loved to fly. Just that now he had a reason to fly. Running round a corridor to the flight deck, he bumped into an old friend, someone who he hadn't seen for years, then swiftly received a punch in the jaw, knocking him down instantly.**

"**How dare you show you fracking face back here again! After all these years Rhett! What the frack did you think you were doing!" screamed the woman, "I thought you were gone! Dead! Now, I see your fracking face onboard this ship! Well, Frack you!" The last words were said as she stormed off down the corridor.**

**Getting up slowly, the captain began to wonder what the frack had just happened, wondering who that was, and how she knew him. Running off again, he managed to get the flight deck 5 minutes later before anyone else saw him and decided to give him a new look.**

"**Let's go! Move it! Move it!" screamed one of the loadies, trying to give it all that, but quickly told to shut his mouth, after one of the maintenance felt that he was putting too much pressure onto the pilots, and loadie also received a smack in the stomach from one of the pilots for his troubles, this, of course, causing a surge of laughter through the deck.**

**Climbing into his Viper, Rhett briefly looked at what he had scratched into the paintwork of one his missiles that was being loaded, "If you can read this, you're screwed, mate" and what he had also had scratched into the tail of his Viper as another joke, "if you can read this, get the hell of my ass!" and "About to do 180, you're screwed". Calling to one of the loadies, he called "Hey! You! Could I have some help here please! The cockpit shutters jammed!"**

"**Sir, right away sir!" The loadie called back, scurrying to gather some tools together, then running up to the Viper. Hastily pushing Rhett into the seat, the loadie then began oiling the screen, and slammed it down, then jumped down, as the all clear was given for the Viper to be towed to the shoots, and into the melee.**

"**3… 2… 1… 0… All systems are affirmative, fire thrusters Devilo, and… 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, LAUNCH!" the flight master said, watching another pilot scream down the tube and into the fight.**


End file.
